Case Talk:Bunny
We hope 14:25, 24 April 2006 (UTC) He's a real inspiration for all of us, because he's great proof that you can manage diabetes and have a normal length of life. Bunny's been going at this for over 13 years--that's longer than some people with diabetes who are dx'd when they are adults. Know of a couple of canine juvenile cases; both dogs are still quite young. The norm for dogs is that diabetes is dx'd when they are "middle-aged"/older; their natural lifespan making it impossible for any but the juvenile cases to live 13+ years with diabetes. If anyone with a newly-dx'd pet needs to be convinced to TREAT and not PTS, they need to read about Bunny's success. Bunny, if your person can get a photo to Steve, I am voting early for you to be May Pet of the Month!!! Kathy He rocks, but I don't think this is Juvenile Diabetes I agree that Bunny is a good cover candidate, as well as a poster-boy for the "treat diabetic pets" argument. But I think Juvenile Diabetes is reserved for animals that have a genetic form of diabetes, and synonymous with type-1. Bunny was apparently steroid-induced and if so, quite likely type-2. --Steve and Jock 16:22, 24 April 2006 (UTC) JD/IDDM/NIDDM/T1/T2?????? We hope 18:58, 24 April 2006 (UTC) The lines to this are quite "fuzzy". Here's National Institutes of Health re: defining diabetes cases: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000305.htm Alternative names Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus; Juvenile onset diabetes; Diabetes - Type 1 Causes, incidence, and risk factors Type 1 diabetes, often called juvenile or insulin-dependent diabetes Type 2 diabetes, often called adult or non-insulin-dependent diabetes Most of the humans break it down into either T1 (IDDM) and T2 (NIDDM). Further muddying of the waters is this one re: vaccinations causing juvenile diabetes: http://www.909shot.com/diseases/juvenilediabetes.htm If we take the definition of Type 1 as only those young ones born with the disease, we're omitting scads of those who were dx'd later from other causes, but are insulin-dependent. We can't very well put them into Type 2, because T2's are not dependent on insulin. To further confuse things, though T2's are not dependent on insulin, some T2's do use it--especially fast/rapid acting at mealtimes. Taking it by amount of insulin pancreas function with T1 as those with little or no native insulin production and T2 with some native insulin production, but not enough of it, at least makes 2 clear-cut "camps" out of this. Kathy :I kept studying and found out some more stuff, thanks in part to Jess and Earl from the FDMB. Jess is a vet tech with a good education and a lot of smarts who showed me where I was wrong on exactly the points you make above. Type-1 and type-2 are clearly delineated by their cause. And type-2's who go with high blood sugar long enough become insulin dependent, but do not become type-1's. They become stage-V type-2 diabetics. :Type 1 is an autoimmune disorder in which pancreatic cells are attacked by the immune system's antibodies, and killed or disabled. :Type 2 results from almost anything triggering the hyperglycemia <-> pancreatic damage vicious circle, whether it be obesity, insulin resistance, steroids, Cushings, etc. Once the cycle is triggered, if left untreated it "progresses" until the subject is entirely insulin-dependent, and perhaps even further until the pancreas is destroyed. (The pancreas may still be functional in an insulin-dependent, just not up to the body's needs) :We should have a page on this, no? :Here are my references: :*NIH :*MedicineNet :*Progression of Type-2 to insulin-dependence :*progression of Type-2 diabetes and the role of amyloidosis T1-T2 etc. We hope 00:42, 25 April 2006 (UTC) YES!-because we have feline diabetes here, which doesn't always wind up as IDDM, just as people don't. There are T2 people and T2 cats. Some T2's can be controlled with only diet, some need diet and orals while others need diet and some fast/rapid acting insulin at meals. Some human T2's use orals AND some insulin AND diet; and some use more than 1 type of orals with diet. Others, as Jess noted, have their pancreas continue to fail to the point where they do become IDDM. (Sheesh, right?) I have 2 friends with T1--one has been IDDM since childhood--the other became T1 in adulthood. They are trying to differentiate in people by "tagging" the T1 with either juvenile onset or adult onset. I think the terms IDDM and NIDDM are much easier to keep straight, because it clarifies whether or not the individual must have insulin to survive. Most dogs who are dx'd with DM fall into the category of T1-adult onset. T2's far outnumber T1's as far as people are concerned; most adults who simply say they have diabetes without elaborating are T2. The diabetes epidemic you hear a lot about is primarily T2 cases; the VERY disturbing part is that many of these T2's are kids. Kids were primarily T1's until not so long ago--lifestyle has made the "difference". BTW-- I also think we need to get into the "other" diabetes--diabetes insipidus--with a page at some point. One person at CDMB had two diabetic dogs--one with DM and the other with DI. DI isn't as common as DM, but if people come here looking for diabetes information, think we need to get something together on DI for them. AFAIK, there's no "central" resource for DI such as message boards, etc. Will start looking for more stuff on T1 & T2 and get some DI material together. Kathy